Fire Evacuation Plan in a hospital: 10 Things and More to Consider in Making One

When a disaster happens in the vicinity or far from the
hospital patients and victims of fires are brought there. But how about when
the fire occurs in the hospital itself? The other question is, how about an operating room fire?

Aside from the procedures to fight fire at the place of the
incident, a fire evacuation plan is
critical not only to the hospital staff and other patients, who may already be
in their own rooms waiting for full recuperation, but to all those visitors of
patients who may be there at the time the fire occurs.

Fire Evacuation Plan

Exit Routes and Relocation Area

1. The
routes and exits are properly marked and lighted, pointing to the direction of
the designated exit door. The exit routes should be wide enough to accommodate
not only the number of personnel evacuating but also the equipment like beds
carrying patients from the affected area. It is preferred that an alternate
route be designated in case the area of the fire is near or within the
designated primary route.

The routes and exits, as much as possible are
indicated in a map properly displayed for all personnel and visitors to refer
to just in case.

2. Part
of the evacuation plan should be the designation of relocation area for
specific locations of the outbreak of the fire, say for example, what wing on what
storey of the hospital building should they go.

3. Procedures
for evacuating patients should include the members of the staff who will assist
them.

Plan For Accounting

4. Procedures
for assisting visitors, especially those with disabilities shall be included in
the plan. In this regard, an appropriate number of wardens should be designated
to assist them.

5. All
routes and exits should be free from obstructions that will hamper the free and
orderly movement of the evacuees.

6. Those
employees who may be tasked to shut down certain equipment must know the
procedures in detail to be followed and must be capable of knowing when to
abandon the task.

7. There
should be a plan for accounting the staff and visitors, who evacuated, at the
relocation or assembly area. In this regard, part of the overall security plan
should be requiring visitors to log in and log out so that in any eventuality
and where possible, an accounting of those visitors can be done.

The Evacuation

8. In
case the situation aggravates after every body has relocated, procedures for
further evacuation must also be in place.

9. Employees’
responsibilities during the evacuation should part of the whole evacuation
plan. Employees should be familiar with the plan, know the pathway to at least
two exits from their room or workplace. They should know what they should do in
case they are trapped: things like staying calm, going to a room with an
outside window and telephone for help if possible; and staying where rescuers
can see the employee, and things of that source.

10. Training
of the staff to the extent possible should also be part of the plan. Fire
drills should be conducted as regularly as possible.

Fire Evacuation Plan

Fire in The Operating Room

The possibility of operating room fire is also there,
although it is just a possibility, for such an occurrence is very, very rare. The
presence of oxygen tanks used for
respiration of patients undergoing operation in
the operating room is one factor, and so it becomes imperative for the
hospital to be proactive by promulgating a fire
evacuation plan for the operating room in addition to the overall
evacuation plan for the hospital.

The following things should be considered in making the
evacuation plan:

1. If
there is a patient undergoing operations, can the operations be postponed for a
little time or be re-scheduled, even if it is critical and transferred if
possible to another operating room? The decision lies on the surgeon himself
performing the operation. Assuming the decision is yes, all the necessary
equipment to sustain the life of the patient should be included in the orderly
evacuation of the patient. For example, during the relocation of the patient,
manual ventilation with ambulatory bags containing supplementary oxygen should
be included in the list of equipment to be carried.

Also, the operating tables maybe brought along
as necessary, together with the anesthesia machine, if and when there is an
operation that is disrupted and had to be continued in another operating room.
Again this matter depends on the surgeon performing the operation.

2. The
routes to take should be properly marked and lighted. Sometimes it might be
thought to be common sense but when a fire
evacuation plan is implemented or even only rehearsed, in the confusion ensuing,
some may not be able to find the correct route.

Furthermore, the signs and marks provided
those exit routes should as much as possible be LED or photoluminescent material
or tritium so that in case of cut off of power from the main power supply, they
will always be visible.

3. The
relocation area should be designated in the plan to avoid confusion and
minimize danger to the life of the patients. This will also serve as the place
to determine if anybody is missing.

Be Prepared for Eventualities

The complexity of the situation generates many factors to be
considered in the creation of a viable fire evacuation plan, much more to
practice it. For one thing, the whole facility is divided into different
segments of specialized concerns of which many are too delicate to disturb by
activities such as the fire evacuation drill. Also, for a whole hospital to
evacuate because of fire, or even just a wing or a storey occupied by patients,
whose condition might be aggravated if they move, the hospital staff, and the
visitors present in any particular floor of the building, the problem of
mobilizing them either in a fire evacuation drill or actual situation can be
mindboggling.

It behooves the responsible person and the person delegated
to assist him/her to really sit down and deeply consider whether the evacuation
plan is not only adequate or not; and the times when drills are feasible. In
fact, there are times that the plan can be validated only by conducting a fire
drill.

In spite of the fact that
operating room and hospital fires are rare, it always best to be ready for any
eventuality. In this regard, prepare an evacuation plan, they must.